This first report on The biggest night in pop comes from our team following its premieres at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. We will update this article as soon as there is more information about the film’s release.
Logline
On January 28, 1985, more than 40 of the United States’ most famous musicians, from Michael Jackson and Diana Ross to Paul Simon and Billy Joel, met in secret to record a charity song. “We Are the World” was intended as a fundraiser for the African famine. The biggest night in popa documentary coming soon to Netflix is about how this song was recorded in just one night.
Longer line
“We Are the World” is one of the best-selling and most popular singles of all time and features perhaps the most star-studded cast ever recorded together. Bao Nguyen’s film follows the creation of the song, from the initial idea through the writing and the involvement of talent to the actual recording.
Nguyen presents all of this through archival footage from when the recording session was first filmed, as well as talking head interviews with some of the musicians involved, including Lionel Richie, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen and Kenny Loggins.
What is The Greatest Night in Pop trying to achieve?
Aside from just documenting one of the most important pop culture moments of the 20th century, The biggest night in pop also attempts to convey the sheer star power that gathered at A&M Studios that night in 1985. It was a who’s who of the world’s most famous musicians, which meant there was both a clash of egos and a resulting levity. Shared Notoriety: These superstars were in the only room in the world where most people around them really understood what life was like at that level of prominence.
Does “The Greatest Night in Pop” live up to its premise?
The biggest night in pop is looking for a more relaxed and celebratory version of the frantic energy that director DA Pennebaker captured in it Original cast album: Company, his filming of this album’s nighttime recording session. Most of the time Nguyen succeeds there. His documentary is breezy and entertaining, and while it describes the evening well, thanks in large part to Richie’s fantastic narration, it has the good point of avoiding the personalities who were actually in the room. This approach prevents it from being a truly great documentary: it rarely adds much context beyond backstory to the footage we see, and it deliberately avoids any controversy or criticism of even the most difficult celebrity participants. But the footage-forward approach makes the whole thing a lot of fun to watch.
Seeing Bob Dylan look uncomfortable in a sea of famous faces, Stevie Wonder bantering with Ray Charles, or Huey Lewis nervously working on a harmony is as careless as most of these stars have ever been on film. It’s a fascinating document. And the way every second of this footage remains riveting, almost 40 years later, is a testament to the raw, all-encompassing, utterly magnetic star power that everyone in this room has.
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Image: Netflix
The quote that says it all
As the film itself points out, the most important aspect of the entire evening was when producer Quincy Jones put a sign in the recording studio that read, “Check your ego at the door.” That’s what matters The biggest night in pop
The most memorable moment
There are a number of incredible moments, like Waylon Jennings leaving the recording studio muttering, “There’s no good ol’ boy who ever sang in Swahili,” or Cyndi Lauper realizing that her giant necklaces mean so much Making noise that the microphones picked up next to her voice. But if anything from this film is going to be a meme, it’s Bob Dylan’s awkward grimace in the middle of music’s most famous faces as he desperately tries to figure out how to sing the chorus with them. It’s incredible and as Bob Dylan as it gets.
Is The Greatest Night in Pop any good?
Absolutely. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of a documentary classic and falls short of insight into the tortured circumstances and frustrated production Original cast album: Companyor the pure musical excellence of Monterey pop. But there’s something special about the coming together of these stars that makes this film a fascinating document about fame and the people behind it.
When can we see it?
The biggest night in pop will be released on Netflix on January 29th.
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